WoW Journal - 20-Mar-05

This weekend I'm on a roll, and I level like crazy. I start on Saturday by finishing the quest for the Nifty Stopwatch, with the help of a guild mate who is on the same quest. Nice to have an emergency speed boost to run away now, without using Swiftness Potions. I finish another Badlands quest, then move to Stranglethorn to get some more quests done. Killing trolls I notice that I get parts for two different quests, the one I'm after, and the long forgotten warrior level 40 quest, which I received at level 30. But before I can finish that one, I ding 40. And of course I have to rush to Durotar first, to buy myself a raptor mount. In emerald green, very stylish.

Then I ride back to the trolls and collect the tusks from them for the level 40 warrior weapon quest. I also need 8 Liferoot, but a guild herbalist provides me with those. Last part is three times 8 charms from the elementals in Arathi Highlands. Which combines well with my quest there to free Princess Myzrael. Only that the keys to free the princess are a lot easier to get than 8 charms, which don't drop that often. Well, at least I'm making good xp there. Finally I got all the ingredients. The last part of that warrior quest involves summoning a big air elemental and killing him. The reward is a blue weapon of your choice, but choice is limited to the three types of 2-handed weapons. So I can only sell the reward.

I spend some time gathering mithril and iron for the level 40 smithing quest then, and make good xp at the same time from killing the ogres in Alterac Mountains. I manage to finish the first triplet of the smithing quests, which cost 120 mithril in resources, plus 40 iron, and some other stuff. Pretty time consuming, and the next part needs more mithril, so I postpone that.

On Sunday I join with some guild mates to finish the quest series that frees Princess Myzrael in Arathi Highlands. Long series. During the step that leads us into the Badlands I ding 41. Up to now the quest series is enjoyable, but then we come to the last step, and it turns out that the princess is evil, and we need to kill her. And she is level 50 elite. As the rest of the quest series went from level 37 to 41, the step to 50 elite is rather harsh. A design flaw in my opinion. We get a level 50 from the guild to help us, but we get wiped out three times before we kill her on the fourth try. Well, at least I get 7,100 xp and a Pulsating Crystalling Shard necklace.

On the bad news side it seems that smithing isn't all that profitable any more, due to lots more competition. I used make a bundle selling Green Iron Hauberks for 6 gold, but now I see lots of those for 2 gold or less in the AH.

I finish the weekend with an expedition into Razorfen Down with a guild group. I get one quest outside finished. But the escort quest inside is insanely difficult, you probably need at least 10 people for it. There is a great looking skeleton rock concert in that dungeon, but we don't dare to attack those undead. We make our way to the final mob, but get wiped out. And one of the group needs to leave, so we abandon this dungeon.

In spite of the bad end, I'm quite happy with the weekend. Made 3 levels, helped by one level at double speed from xp bonus. And I'm the proud owner of a raptor mount.
- posted by Tobold @ 9:44 PM Permanent Link